Video is powerful and has many uses, whether you're a B2B marketer, or work directly with consumers in the B2C world. B2C marketers often use video to convert buyers on e-commerce sites, and B2B marketers see success when using them to raise awareness and interest in their products and services.

Get creative! Put videos in your emails, on corporate sites, and social media networks. Customers can also play them on-demand, on tablets and smart phones – and don’t forget to include an eye-catching video in your trade show display

1. Establish your goals.Sure, video is great, but you should have a strategy. Be clear about what you want your video to do for you. Introduce your company? Promote a new product? Build confidence in your service? Consider how you will measure the success of your video - views, re-posts, website traffic, etc. If you don’t know what you should expect with your first video, monitor these and other metrics to create a baseline for comparison to future videos.

2. Tell your story.The passion you have for your company, product or service can be contagious – video is great at capturing this passion unlike any other medium! Strive to educate and entertain your viewers. Create content that addresses your client’s key pain points and the factors that influence their purchase decisions. Think about the content you want to present and then decide the best method to communicate it - an interview with a member of your organization’s leadership? A how-to demonstration? Live testimonials taped in your booth?

3. Plan your shoot.Storyboard the shots you’ll need to videotape. Thinking it through will help you generate a list of what you’ll need - from what people you'll use, to what props will work best and the location(s) you'll need. Just remember to choose a location with good lighting.

4. Need Voice?If you plan to videotape someone speaking, provide them witha microphone. An alternative is to write a script and record a voiceover track to be added in the post production editing stage. Your script can be translated and recorded to create different language versions of your video. Be sure to record in a closed, quiet room free from noise in surrounding areas.

5. Action!You don't need a big budget - an amateur can run the camera, but invest in a tripod to eliminate the potential for shaky results. To avoid distractions in the background, shoot close to your subjects. For how-to demos, avoid shots with anyone’s back to the camera. Instead have them stand to the side or facing the camera whenever possible.

6. Keep it brief.In the fast-moving Internet age, most agree that a few minutes is all you need for the final edited video. A general rule of thumb is 3-4 minutes.

7. Sound of music.Background music should enhance the presentation, but not over power it. Consider adding music to the intro and possibly again at the end. Be sure to use rights-free or royalty-free music.

8. Contact us.Remember to title your video and include your company logo at the beginning. Close your video with contact information and/or your website URL so that viewers from viral sharing can find you.

9. Optimize your video with titles, descriptions, and tags.

10. Have fun.According to Dale Carnegie “People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”